Man Gets 30 Days in Jail for Assaulting 12-Year-Old : Sentencing: Acquitted of a more serious charge that the Mission Viejo incident was a racially motivated hate crime, he also must serve three years’ probation.

A Mission Viejo man was sentenced on Friday to 30 days in jail for assaulting a 12-year-old black youth last summer.

A jury last month convicted Paul Richard Klein Klein, 28, on two counts of misdemeanor assault and battery but acquitted him of a more serious charge, that the assault was a racially motivated hate crime.

Klein, who was also placed on three years’ probation, had faced six months in jail and a $1,000 fine for the assault and battery convictions.

In sentencing Klein, South Orange County Municipal Judge Arthur G. Koelle accepted him into a work furlough program, which will permit him to serve the sentence on weekends, starting Feb. 14.

Koelle gave no explanatory remarks during the sentencing, which was held immediately after prosecution and defense attorneys had met with him in his chambers.

Klein and his attorney, Joe A. Dickerson, said after the sentencing that the race of victim Jason Donnell did not play a role in the incident.

“There was no race involved at all,” said Klein. “That wasn’t on my mind at all.”

As he had done throughout the court proceedings, Dickerson admitted that his client was “dumb” to have assaulted the boy but added that the incident “was triggered by anger and fear, not hatred. Things just got out of hand.”

However, Dickerson characterized the sentence as “more than (Klein) needs to have gotten. The only thing he’s convicted of is assault and battery. He slapped a kid. What’s that worth?”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Craig McKinnon said jail time is justified because “here we had an assault by a 28-year-old man who is 6 feet tall against someone who is 12 years old and weighs 90 pounds.”

Klein confirmed that following his arrest, he had been harassed by anonymous people who threatened his former landlady, vandalized his car and caused him to lose his job as manager at an auto parts store.

“I’ve been through a lot,” he said.

According to testimony at the trial, Jason was walking along Los Alisos Boulevard in Mission Viejo on June 30 with a group of friends when Klein drove by in a late-model Corvette. Jason testified that he was dancing and skipping in the street as Klein passed and that the man’s car narrowly missed him.

Klein turned around and jumped out of the car as both sides angrily hurled racial epithets at each other. The older man responded by striking Jason in the ribs with his fists, testimony showed.

The child received minor bruises and scrapes but otherwise was not seriously injured. His mother said in July that the incident had emotionally traumatized Jason.

Jurist Judy Brown said the panel decided very early in their deliberations that the attack wasn’t “racially motivated. We thought there was an angry verbal exchange between them that went both ways.”

Members of the Donnell family were not available for comment Friday.